Friday, June 13, 2008

Curse you American Cola!

So back in my college (learning and later teaching) days my (non-alcoholic) drink of choice was (parenthesised clarification) Cherry Coke. Then came the new Vanilla Cherry Coke, which I did not like. Conveniently and tastily, an alternative was provided in the form of Lime Coke. Of course, in all of Ottawa, the only place I could find Lime Coke was in the drink machines at the college - every other store scoffed at me, telling me it was only available in Diet form.

Fast forward to last month, when my mother crossed the border to the States and smuggled back my requested sweet, sweet ambrosia, she also brought back tales of at least a dozen flavours of Coke.

As she was going back under the fence a few weeks later, she asked if I wanted anything else. I requested "Go, and bring forth abundantly Coke if fruitful (of Cherry and Lime)" (Guaranisis, 9:17). They didn't seem to have lime so I got a case of Cherry and more liquid crimson yummy

As it turns out, Cherry Coke bottled in the States tastes nothing like Cherry Coke produced in Canada. It's kinda odd that artificial cherry flavour could be made to taste even less like cherries. It makes me wonder whether they've screwed up the simple act of stealing half of Sprite's syrup for their Lime Coke recipe...

Fun fact: When I worked for Transport Canada in the department which provided the emergency response line for chemical spills, some of the longest, most complex documents I got to process were the procedures to follow should a tanker leak syrup for use in soft drinks.

4 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Yes, cherry coke it like the nectar from the teeth rotting gods. However, cherry Dr. Pepper is even better.

Apparently, coke isn't the only thing that tastes different in the US of A. They seem to make everything sweeter - especially Oreos. I think we should organize random road trips for taste samples and make a list ;0)

all foods in America are sweeter? a possible link to why Americans are fatter than the rest of the world?

I hated Cherry Coke, I hated Vanilla Coke, I hated Lemon diet coke but I really liked Lime Coke, however we could only get it in the diet form which was probably a blessing in disguise. I am trying out for a month of restricting myself to 4 teaspoons of refined sugar when it comes to snacks and drinks. The reason why it is 4 teaspoons is because I can't not have my daily coffee and/or tea after dinner.

It is actually quite hard because I can't drink anything except juice (without added sugar) and water. And practically I can't eat any snacks.

Isn't the syrup used to makle plain old cola caustic enough to clean the gunk off an engine? I thought I heard that somewhere. Meanwhile, people wonder why they have ulcers and rotting teeth, there's no way the consumption of colas could be connected to those, is there?

As an American Coke drinker I would like to point out that it also tastes different depending on the bottling. I can only enjoy Coke from a can, the plastic bottled Coke tastes like crap and the glass bottled Coke is way too carbonated. Maybe this influenced the taste for you?